Today was the ninth day of the eighth month. Clear skies. Auspicious for causing trouble, opening doors, and leading the way.
Though that was not what the almanac actually said, it did not matter. For a Sorcerer, every day seemed suitable for doing those things.
There was an inconspicuous curio shop in New York, and I was its owner. You could call me the shopkeeper. Though business at this little shop was rather slow, I always made time to come back and take a look whenever I could. After all, this was the first place in this world that I could truly call home. It held too many of my memories. My car was parked here, and my secret stash was buried beneath the bathroom tiles. No matter what, I could never let go of these things.
I leaned against the counter, facing the street outside. In less than twenty minutes, eight customers came by in total: one asked for directions, two were frightened away by the shop's setup, and five merely passed by the entrance.
That did not discourage me. Business was all about timing. Before the time was right, it was hard to please everyone; after it passed, the business got burned. People were the same way. Behind one deal was another deal.
Over so many years, time had flowed on, leaving all my memories in disarray. I had forgotten many things, which was why certain developments still caught me by surprise. I had thought I had adapted to this situation. Over the next three minutes, nothing happened. I hesitated over whether I should simply kill these uninvited guests in front of me. After all... I had something very important to do. That was a fact no one could change.
This time, I was about to head to